Maja Hürst was invited for a residence at the Toot Yung art center, bangkok from February to April 2014, during which she developed various works from pyrographed woodcuts, to spray behind-glass-paintings and mixed media on canvas. The rich, eclectic and generous body of work of the artist, juggling with themes such as daily life, pollution, ephemerality, folklore, mythology and love, is a refreshing overview of the powerful imagination and energy which Maja Hürst will display at the gallery from April 5th to May 10th 2014. In the boutique will be presented a limited collection of woodcut printed shirts; made in collaboration with Swiss architect Thomas Meyer / AIM who developed unisex cuts in linen and fine cotton coated with the dynamic forms of TIKA. Maja Hürst’s imagery is a discourse of aspects of today’s global society and the nearly forgotten traditions and sagas of the past. The strictly regulated way of living in modern megacities is catalyzed into reduced graphic shapes on grid precision, filled with savagely applied textures and scratches through layers of dust, paint and history reminding of wild vintage tropicalism. Abstract human figures interweave with animals and objects to let our day to day life joust with our human heritage of tales and symbols.

The self taught artist is currently based between Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and Zurich. She was born in Switzerland in 1978 and raised in Cairo and Cologne. Maja Hürst pasted her first posters in the streets in 1988 and started painting graffiti in the late 90ies. She received her diploma with nomination at the Zürich University of the Arts in Visual Communication in 2004. Deeply rooted in d.i.y. culture she experimented with manual multiplying techniques like wood- or linocut, silkscreen print and stencils in which she produced countless posters for Zurich's hip-hop and squat scene. Since 2003 she is working full time on her visual universe TIKA which can be found as large scale building bracing murals in Cape Town, Cologne, Atlanta, The Gambia, Rio de Janeiro, Alexandria and Berlin to name a few. Maja Hürst has been invited to numerous festivals, projects and group shows for example at the Kunsthaus Zurich, Alexandria Goethe Institut, Living Walls Conference Atlanta, Cityleaks Festival Cologne, Copenhagen Art Festival, Museumsnacht.

-Toot Yung Gallery

Image: © Maja Hürst
Courtesy of the artist and Toot Yung Gallery